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Exchange for a cruise

T

TEK224

TUG Member
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Has anyone exchanged their week thru II for a cruise? If so how does it work? I read the FAQ’s but they were not too helpful.
If I exchange my week, does that get me the week on the cruise? For how many people?
Is there any additional charge (besides the port charges, tips and taxes)?
Is it easy to get this type of exchange or are they difficult to get?

Any other things I should know about exchanging for a cruise?

Thanks
Terri
 
Unfortunately, you have to deposit your timeshare week, plus you also have to pay a large fee, which is often as much as just paying for a discount cruise, so it's usually not a good value.
 
To add to what DeniseM said, about the only time we've seen anyone get more value on a cruise than the cost of their MF is when they use the discount on multiple cabins. For most folks who just want one cabin, the better deal is through a cruise discounter. Use timeshare MF for timeshare stays. Use cash for cruises.
 
Passepartout said:
To add to what DeniseM said, about the only time we've seen anyone get more value on a cruise than the cost of their MF is when they use the discount on multiple cabins. For most folks who just want one cabin, the better deal is through a cruise discounter. Use timeshare MF for timeshare stays. Use cash for cruises.
Click to expand...
Question:
Is being able to apply the same discount to multiple cabins an RCI thing?
I heard a salesman from Williamsburg Plantation mention that you could apply the same discount to multiple cabins, but II (the exchange company for WP) says that is not possible.
 
dominidude said:
Question:
Is being able to apply the same discount to multiple cabins an RCI thing?
I heard a salesman from Williamsburg Plantation mention that you could apply the same discount to multiple cabins, but II (the exchange company for WP) says that is not possible.
Click to expand...
I think that may be the case. I am not an II member, so may be off.
 
Thanks. I thought that seemed to good to be true.
 
There are 2 different ways to book cruises in II. One is getting like a 5% discount, and it is a straight booking. So you can book as many as you wish. The other way is to exchange. You must NOT deposit your week before you make an exchange. Cruise exchange cannot use an already deposited week. II will put a value on what you are using to exchange, and it varies by the resort, season and room size. It will take a few hundred dollars off the cruise price. It is almost never worth it, but it is another way to use a timeshare week.
 
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VacationForever said:
There are 2 different ways to book cruises in II. One is getting like a 5% discount, and it is a straight booking. The other way is to exchange. You must NOT deposit your week before you make an exchange. Cruise exchange cannot use an already deposited week. II will put a value on what you are using to exchange, and it varies by the resort, season and room size. It will take a few hundred dollars of the cruise price. It is almost never worth it, but it is another way to use a timeshare week.
Click to expand...

Is this printed anywhere in the II guidelines? I find it odd to learn all the ins and outs of II from TUG and not from II. Not that I'm in any danger of doing a cruise exchange, but I have been a member of II for 10 years and I'm only vaguely aware of these "benefits". How did you learn of these two different ways to book cruises?
 
There is some info on the website:

Log into II - click TRAVEL - click CRUISES.

Log into II - click EXCHANGE - click CRUISES.
 
jlp879 said:
Is this printed anywhere in the II guidelines? I find it odd to learn all the ins and outs of II from TUG and not from II. Not that I'm in any danger of doing a cruise exchange, but I have been a member of II for 10 years and I'm only vaguely aware of these "benefits". How did you learn of these two different ways to book cruises?
Click to expand...
That is why everyone learns something new to them from TUG. One is called experience (I have exchanged for cruise), the other is reading II email regarding 5% discount on booking directly without doing an exchange.
 
You can go through the steps and price out different cruise itineraries with your unit to see what they would be and you can compare that to the price without using the exchange. You do have to be gold or platinum to do a cruise exchange but you can price it out without being one of those levels, it will just add the price to upgrade to fee to book the cruise if you do a cruise exchange.

If you can usually rent your week easily for your MF or higher, you are usually better off just renting your week and applying it to a cruise.
If you could rent it out for more than your MF but don't feel like going through the hassle it might be worth it.
I just priced out a specific carribbean cruise through II travel and through cruises.com- same cruise, same dates, same cabin type, same promotion for shipboard credits- through both the price would be $1878.70 for 2 persons. Using a summer Williamsburg Plantation 2 BR full kitchen week that has a MF of about $500 but I usually can rent out for about $650, II offered the cruise for $1228.22 - I already have platinum so no extra fee but there would be if you aren't already gold or platinum. In addition the exchange fee would be $179. The savings for me on this cruise would be $471.48 (they gave me a discount of 650.48 and then subtract out the $179 exchange fee) so close to my MF and If I didn't want to use the week and I wouldn't have to rent it out, it might be worth it for this particular cruise.

But like I said you have to comparison shop and see if it really makes sense or not to do an exchange for a cruise through II.
 
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dominidude said:
Question:
Is being able to apply the same discount to multiple cabins an RCI thing?
I heard a salesman from Williamsburg Plantation mention that you could apply the same discount to multiple cabins, but II (the exchange company for WP) says that is not possible.
Click to expand...

You can not apply the same discount to multiple cabins with II. They give you a value for your unit and the discount comes off of their cruise prices with any applicable discounts. RCI and SFX work in such a way that the discount goes toward multiple cabins but the discount is calculated very different for them. Typically the discount is greater the higher the cabin you select. For cruises that are under $2000 per cabin for 2 persons the discount is likely to be not more than $100 per cabin (and could be less) but you can apply that to up to 4 and maybe 6 cabins. If you are looking at cabins that are $4000-$8000 for 2 persons the discount might be $500-$600 per cabin and you could apply that toward multiple cabins.
 
There are always different ways to look at things and assess the value of a cruise exchange. The first cruise exchange we did through TPI was originally an ocean view room on deck 5 of the Veendam. Three weeks before the cruise we paid $100 each ($200 total) and upgraded to a Vista suite on the Navigation deck. We think the exchange was worth it, and then some.

We are working on a second cruise now. We originally booked through TPI but learned that II now handles cruise exchanges for TPI. So far, things aren't going nearly as well. We will make the effort for the upgrade, but instead of an excellent TPI adviser leading us through the steps, we are dragging a reluctant II adviser along. It seems that customer service is an after thought at II. The outcome of this cruise exchange will go a long way toward determining if we will use II/TPI again.
 
Before I exchange my timeshare week for a cruise. I would check with AAA, a local travel agent, a cruise travel agent that only deals with cruises and Costco Travel and compare apples to apples. In other words, I would compare that timeshare exchange agent deal with my personal travel cruise agent.

Vacation to Go is another travel agent offer deep cruise discount.

For us Costco Travel have so far been the best of the two (2) components. We have received more OBC and other perks., plus a Costco Cash Card at the end of our cruise .
 
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I always suggest Vacations to go especially if you can wait till 90 days out. We can usually find deep discounted cruises this way. What we usually try to do is tie a timeshare week to either end of the cruise so we can fly to the cruise departure city and relax before the cruise or after. Sometimes we've done it both before and after. We do this often now that we are retired.
 
Icc5, your suggestion about cruising before or after a timeshare vacation is an excellent suggestion. This year we are going on a twelve (12) day’s cruise then we are going to relax with a seven (7) day’s timeshare vacation.
 
From my limited vantage point, vacationing overall is getting expensive, the price of cruises and inclusive resorts has increased astronomically in the last couple year, at least when kids are out of school.
It seems that we won't be going on either for a little while at least.
 
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